In college I lived in a double dorm room. One night I was awakened by my roommate yelling what sounded like "Go AWAY!" It was the middle of the night and we'd both been asleep for a while. I rolled over to see what was going on and it looked like he was getting back into bed. Everything else seemed normal so I figured he'd just had a bad dream or something and I went back to sleep.

In the morning I asked him about it. He gave me a funny look and said that he'd gotten up to go to the restroom which was down the hall. When he came back in the room he saw a black thing that looked like thick, bulbous tree branches growing out of the wall above his bed, branching out fast and low across the ceiling. It freaked him out and could hardly talk but he squeaked out "go away." Then got his courage up and yelled "Go AWAY!" which was what woke me up. The black thing disappeared. He was shaken up, said he didn't sleep any after that.

Totally normal guy, biology major (premed), not a partier. He had a partial scholarship and studied hard and worked part time, not a practical joker by any means. We lived in an end room on the second floor, no window on that wall and no trees outside it, just grass below. I never saw anything weird in the room but I never forgot he told me that.

 

I don't doubt this, but the high stress and malnutrition, typical of many college students can lead to hallucinations. Drugs not included.

 

About a year ago I got my brand spanking new arsenal inc Sam 7r 61 with a pair of Howard lights. As usual when acquiring new gear I tried using it at home and was room Clearing in the dark. If you have ever used sound amplifier around electronics they make strange noises nothing bothersome. But while using them in the creepy back side of the house I swear to you I heard through the static "death is upon you" in a raspy strained whisper. I naturally turned tail and ran like a scared little boy back to my room. Also yes strange things have happened before, and no there were no electronics on in the house I was too excited to mess with my new toys to turn on a silly tv or computer.

 

I moved into my place about 6 years ago now.

Almost from Day One, I've had some rather unusual experiences here. From friends who asked about figures looking out of windows and sitting on my balcony, to the sound of footsteps walking up and down the hallway late at night, the place has generally been a classic "haunted house".

There are three experiences that stand out over all the general creepiness.

The first occurred about a year after I moved in. The house was empty except for myself. I was relaxing with a book when I heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway. I put the book down and waited. The footsteps came to my bedroom door and ceased. A minute went by without any further occurrence, so I picked up my book. As I began to read I heard a soft knock on the door. I set the book down again and asked who was at the door. Silence. Then I heard another knock. Again I asked who was at the door; again there was no answer. I started to get up when I heard a female voice call my name. The voice came from the hallway and was loud enough to be heard through the door. I did not recognize the voice. The voice also sounded strange, as though it were an echo. I went to the door and opened it. No one was in the hallway, and after a search the house was empty.

The second occurred about 4 months after the first. It was late in the afternoon and I was working on my computer when I heard a knock on my bedroom door. I stood up and went to the door, only to find there was no one there. I went back to my work when I heard the knocking again. This time it was louder. This time I called out that I wasn't going to be toyed with, and that if they wanted my attention they would have to do more than tap and make funny noises. I had only finished this statement when I heard a crash from my closet. I stood up and went to check. Sitting on the floor was a picture frame I had put on the top shelf (about 7 feet off the floor). The glass was not cracked and the frame had no scratches or dings, as one expects after falling that far. I took the frame and replaced it on the shelf, adding a heavy book to keep it there. Minutes later I heard another bang from the closet. The same picture frame had fallen again. The glass was not broken and the book remained on the shelf. I spoke up and said that I felt it was rude to throw another persons possessions around without permission. Nothing further occurred that day.

The last occurred only about a year ago. It was a Saturday night and I had turned in early after a hectic day. I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night with the distinct feeling that I was not alone. I opened my eyes and saw a dark figure at the foot of the bed. It seemed to stare at me for a long time before leaning closer. I spoke up and said that it had no business being in my room, and I wanted it to leave. It seemed to hover in place before withdrawing and fading into the shadows.

 

Deaths on our land



This land we lived on here in New Mexico has a very dark history. From the settlers early in our country's history to recent events. We live out in the boonies along the Rio Grande. The land has seen much death and nefarious activity. We have experienced everything from apparitions to noises to items moving to voices, etc.. You name it we have seen or heard it. Its almost become a normal thing around here. We had all kinds of animals, horses, goats, llamas, sheep, dogs, cats, etc.. They reacted constantly to the presence of something we could not see or hear. Sometimes with panic other times with curiosity. This is a very active area for "paranormal" stuff.

 

Are you sure these stories shouldn't start with, "So we were all tripping balls on this military grade acid when..." :

 

This one time after partying all night I woke up and rolled over..................

 

The Visitor Cowboy

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, my brothers, sister, mother and I lived in an old house in Umatilla, Florida, north of Eustis, Florida. The house was the old traditional wood frame style of the mid to late 1800s, complete with gabled roof and corresponding upstairs ceilings. It looked much like this house, except it had a porch on the front, side and rear of the house: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b8/a7/77/b8a777fbefd30bde4c83c54ec974f8e1.jpg
My father was "away" on one of his extended ventures that lasted from a month to several, somewhere that didn't afford the likes of food, clothing and rent money for a starving wife and children; I think the house was "donated" by people that cared for us more than my father. In any case, we had little more than wire spring mattress frames to sleep on and did well to eat ripe oranges from the orange groves that once covered that area. It must have been early in the season for fruit, for I remember eating some oranges and tangerines that were still a little green. I mention these details not for pity, but to set the stage of our living conditions at that time. When evening came, we would all huddle together in the living room, that was downstairs near the rear of the house. Connected to the rear of the living room was the kitchen and there was the door to the back porch. I was young but still remember my mother and others talking about that back door, which had several sturdy locks. Beyond the door was the back porch, that went down the width of the back of the house, then continued on the side of the house toward the front. The porch was constructed of wood boards (as was the rest of the house), so when someone walked down the porch, you had no trouble hearing it all through the kitchen and living room.
If the reason for all those locks on the back door wasn't evident when we first moved in, it became crystal clear a short time there after. For every evening, just after sundown, what sounded like a man with cowboy boots could be heard walking down that porch on the side of the house, then turning and continuing to the back door, the knob would then actually turn several times before the "visitor" left. This went on almost every evening. One day, my oldest brother David, who was about 15 at the time, borrowed a .22 rifle and climbed into the huge old live oak tree in the back yard. When the time came, we could all hear the footsteps walking down the porch and see the knob turning, but my brother, who had an excellent view of the situation, saw nothing or no one on the porch. After that, we all made sure to be inside before evening and waited out the time for the "visitor cowboy" to come and go.
Many years passed: My brothers, sister and I decided to go back to that house (if it was still there) and see what became of it. We made a trip to Florida (for we all live in Alabama now), and returned to that home site. We found that the old house was still there, but was now completely surrounded by a fence that was 8 feet tall and full of trees and bushes. It was quite evident that the owners wanted their privacy. We called out and blew the car horn until finally a woman came to the gate. She was hesitant to talk at all, especially concerning something in the nature of a the paranormal! But finally she dropped her defenses enough to talk more openly. She said there had never been any disturbance at the back door, but that strange things happened on a regular basis in their kitchen! When we finally got her to reveal more about the layout of her home, it became evident that they had renovated the home years earlier and what was the 'back door' for us, was now her kitchen! As it turned out, the old cowboy had finally gotten in and now making himself at home in the kitchen.
True story!

 

it became evident that they had renovated the home years earlier and what was the 'back door' for us, was now her kitchen! As it turned out, the old cowboy had finally gotten in and now making himself at home in the kitchen.

Great story! It sounds like a residual haunting where a scene replays again and again in the same spot (like a recording in time vs. an actual sentient entity).

Here is a video with a couple of my all time favorite stories, the Roman Legion ghosts. The first story is actually verified with some unusual facts as the video shows, it is a cool example of ancient residual hauntings and one of the tell tale signs is that the visions appear to be cut off at the ankles because the road/floor they were walking on had raised over the centuries.

http://youtu.be/8w-GoDhrIQQ?t=50s

 

My friend used to have a black cat in his apartment. It would cozy up on the bed close to his feet every night above the blankets. He would then reach down to stroke the cat before going to sleep. One morning he found the cat still on the bed but unconscious, stiff and cold. Apparently the cat passed away peacefully the night before. The next day he was getting ready for bed. With all the lights out he again felt something was curling up by his feet, when he reached down he felt nothing! Scared wide awake he turned on the light, grabbed a flashlight on the nightstand and scanned the room. There was no cat to be found.

For reasons beyond me my friend refused to sleep in that room ever again and turned the master bedroom into a storage unit and slept in the guest room instead. One occasion last year on an extended visit I stayed over and decided on a whim to sleep in that room. I slept maybe an hour at most even with a nightlight, if there isn't the feeling of something watching me from the bookshelf then its something tugging my sheets. As far as I'm aware of, his cats live and well, and ****ed someones sleeping in its owners bed.

Personally, if I had a cat like that I don't think I have the heart to move out, might live there permanently

 

Yes, pets have souls/spirits too. It's not new. Nice to see someone thinks about their furry critters and won't leave them. :thumb:

 

Good stories so far. I've had a few things happen from time to time.

Some years ago I was hanging with some friends late one night, we had been playing cards, nothing exciting. All four of us then saw a shadowy figure walk quickly down the hallway into the friend that owns the house bedroom. Seconds later, my friend violently vomited out his nose and mouth. Scary to say the least. For a long time afterwards he had a lot of odd happenings go on, from feeling constantly watched to seeing a woman appear in the back seat of his car. He got hooked on drugs pretty bad and I haven't spoke to him in years.

When the wife and I lived in our old house, the house her grandmother died in, we would constantly hear loud bangs on our ceiling and living room walls, the dog and cat would always act up, and one night something knocked my lamp shade off the lamp and into the floor, with me sitting next to it, guess her grandma didn't care much for me lol.

 

spooks

my wife and i moved into a house built in 1969 in phx az. the original owner and her daughter both died while living here. not necessarily in the house but while they were residents. for the first 3 years, we never really noticed anything but shadows passing doorway type of things. we had never acknowledged it to each other at the time. most were noticed by me, while sitting on the toilet at the end of the hall. the door was on the end hall wall. when no one was home i rarely closed the door. while reading while doing my business, i would notice a shadow pass across the doorway like it was going into my bedroom. never was really bothered cuz they always seemed low, like a cat or a dog. checked quite a few times to see if my cat had gotten in and always found my cat outside. no biggie.
in 2004 we had twins, a boy and girl. around the end of their first year, we would notice that the babies, while sitting in their high chairs being fed, would look into the family room,leaning to either side to see past who ever was feeding them, and point, laugh, and giggle between themselves at what ever they were seeing. something, or someone which no one else ever saw.
during that time i had gone out of town. previous to that was my wife's birthday. we got her a german chocolate cake which, due to health reasons, she had to wait to eat. there was one piece left when i went away. it had one of those snap on plastic lids the store bought cakes come in. she had debated eating the cake one afternoon and went as far as going to it with the intent of eating it. due to her crohn's she decided to wait till the next day. going back to it the following day after putting the babies in their cribs, she went to remove the lid and noticed that the icing, her favorite part, had all been scraped off the top of the cake. it had been there the day before intact and the babies were still not walking and no one had visited from one day to the next.
about 2 months later my sister was baby sitting for us and was feeding the twins in their chairs while talking to my wife who had called to check in. my sister had gone to the sink to get a washcloth wet w/ warm water to wash one of the kids. she walked back, washed the first kid off and turned to walk back to the sink and she just stopped talking. my wife asked what was wrong and my sister said the cupboard under the sink was wide open on the right side. my wife handed me the phone. sis told me what happened. i told her maybe the cat had gotten in the cupboard and she scared it out but i knew better. she closed it, making sure the child latch caught and went to wash the other kids face off. when she turned around, the cabinet door was wide open again....she took the kids to my mom's for the rest of the weekend...lol.
had a lot of shadow sightings, bumps in the other rooms, things not where we left them kinda things happen for the next 9 years. last week, i was in the bathroom at the end of the hall. i was getting ready to go out and my toothbrush was in the kitchen. i was talking to my girl friend, (divorced for 2 yrs), as i got my toothbrush and went back to the hall bath only to find the cabinet door under the sink wide open...in spite of the childproof latches....
we call her barb as that was the name of the lady who lived here. never been overly mean, more of a "just letting us know she is still here", kinda thing. one thing i noticed recently again is that i and my youngest daughter always seem to wake up between 3:10 and 3:17 on most nights.

 

I grew up in a house in an area described as "rural residential". It wasn't a subdivision, but there were plenty of houses in the neighborhood. And best of all, there were about fourteen other boys in the neighborhood, all about the same age as me and my brother.
Suffice to say that it was a great place to grow up during the early 1970's.
Anyway, nothing strange happened there when I was young, but when I was in my late teens, my parents started talking about the little girl that they had seen going from room to room. She would come out of one room, go down the hall and into another room.
I blew this off as my parents were getting older now and maybe just seeing things.
One Christmas Eve, my brother and his family were there and he heard his three year old daughter talking in the bedroom. He went in and asked her who she was talking to and she said " my little friend". When he asked her where her little friend was she said "she went into the bookcase". This kinda freaked brother out a bit.
Later that evening, my parents and my brother and his wife were in the kitchen talking after my niece had gone to bed.
They're were getting ready to " set up Santa Clause", when my brother thought he saw his daughter peeking around the door into the kitchen. When he turned around to shoo her back to bed, he realized that it wasn't his daughter, but the little Girl that my parents had been seeing.
He described her to a tee.
About six or seven years old with light brown hair that came straight down and covered one eye. She wore what looked like a white nightgown of some kind and oh yes...she faded out at about mid thigh!
When he looked at her, she looked up at him and then turned and went down the hall and disappeared.
Weird thing about this is that my sisters were the only girls to have lived in that house. My parents had bought it from the builder and he didn't have any kids, so she couldn't have lived (or died) in that house. There was no logical reason for that little girl to have been there.
She never did anything like move stuff around or make noises, she just went from room to room.
Several other people have seen her...my cousin and my ex included.
I myself have never seen her.

My parents moved out of that house twenty odd years ago and I wonder where that little girl is now.

I drove past the house a few months ago. It was vacant so I stopped to check it out. According to the placards on the front door, the house has been abandoned since 2011.
Apparently some company had winterized the house for the mortgage company and it has been locked down since then.
When I looked in the front window, a million wonderful memories came back to me. Stuff that I haven't thought about in years.
I also noticed that the louvrered door to the furnace closet at the end of the hall was closed. That was the spot my brother had seen the little girl three decades ago. I almost expected to see her come down the hall and into sight, but she didn't.

About a week later, I was in that neighborhood again and stopped by.
When I looked in the front window...I could see that the louvrered door to the furnace closet was now open!

 

We were sitting watching TV the other night when the dog who is usually calm climbed up on the couch. She sat there with her tail tucked in and shook to the point of vibrating the whole couch, she kept looking to the west wall where the old barrel stove is. It took her over an hour to calm down. two nights later, she did the same thing, sat there and shook for about five minutes and was jittery for over an hour.

 

Might be telling you to light the thing

 

I lived in an apartment years ago that my girlfriend swore was haunted. Stuff would get moved around, weird noises and we both had a lot of strange dreams.



There was a decoration glued to the wall that was made out of shards from a broken mirror. The landlady told me should would take it down when she showed us the place, but I told her to leave it because I liked it.



I had a dream one night that I was looking at the mirror thing, and the reflection looking back was a screaming lady. It was very vivid and really shook me up for some reason. I also used to leave the bathroom light on at night and there were a couple of times I swore I saw a shadow go by in the hall from the light under my bedroom door.



I didn't (and still don't) believe in ghosts, but this place almost had me convinced. I went so far as to change the locks on my own dime because I thought someone was coming in while I was at work.



One day I was on the phone with the landlady and she told me that the last person that lived there (the one that made the mirror art) was a woman that had killed herself with an OD of pills after her hubby died

The creepiest thing that happened is this: one night after a long winter day shingling a roof, we were laying in bed reading books. She said "goodnight." And turned off the light. I said "goodnight. I hope the ghost lets us sleep tonight."

The very second after I said that, the curtains fell off the window. Rod and all just fell off for no reason. I laughed, she was terrified.

 

Here's a non creepy store for ya:

Everytime Hubby leaves to go on a fishing trip, something breaks. The car, or something in/on the house, and I have to call repairmen, or neighbor to help fix it.
One time, I discovered our cat had a hole in her. I found a vet, and took her there, and he thought she got shot or something [odd since I never let my cats outside unless I'm with them] attacked her, but he patched her up. The hole was on her upper thigh, kinda what would be a 'butt'. After she healed, and for no good reason, she'd suddenly turn and growl at her tail. Walking or sitting, and sometimes while curled up and purring, she starts growling. Sometimes she even turns and bites at her tail, like it's foreign to her. I think maybe it's nerve damage and her tail falls asleep, giving her those pin pricking sensations. Or she's got PTSD

Well, we moved last year, into a house where the previous owner had passed on, and one day while said cat was doing her growling act, I told hubby, it's a good thing she started that crap before we moved, or otherwise, she'd have me freaking out.

 

My wife used to live in this house years ago, which was next door to the church as it was the priests house.
Found out that my mum used to go to the school and church and she told me stories of the old priest that used to live there. He was a dirty old cranky bloke (I always think of old father jack from father ted series).
Fast forward about 30 years and my wife ended up renting there.
She used to have nightmares, well bad dreams of an old priest gliding down the passage way to her room.
She made sure that all the blinds were down when she went to bed but this one blind would always be open in the morning, one of those horizontal Venetian blinds.
A few other things but they were the main ones.
I stayed there one time by my self and only thing I remember is the light globe used to glow. I thought some bad electrical connection so didn't worry me.


When she left, the new owners used to experience the same sort of things.

 

A couple of years ago the house my sister was living in became something of a problem.

They would hear footsteps from the floor above, when they knew that no one was up there; They would see shadowy forms out of the corner of their eyes; And they would constantly have the strong feeling of dread, no matter what room of the house they were in.

This creepy feeling actually increased over time as the happenings became much more frequent and much more ominous. Ghostly knocking and voices became the norm; literally it was a daily occurrence. The shadows became more defined and would literally sit in dark corners and watch a rooms occupants for extended periods of time. They began to avoid parts of the house where activity seemed to pick up in intensity when they were in it.

Then there were two very strange and terrifying occurrences really shook us up.

The first happened to my brother one night when he went to stay. He decided to sleep on their couch instead of a guest room, since the living room had become something of a hotspot in recent times. He awoke suddenly in the middle of the night and became aware of a black figure in the room that was darker than the night around it. It paces the room soundlessly for a short period of time, then it seemed to crawl up a wall and melt into the ceiling above. The area, when he examined it in the morning, was approximately where our sisters room was, one floor above.

The second happened a few weeks later. My sister was asleep in her bed when she felt the mattress shift and sink, as if someone had sat down beside her. She sat up and began to say the Lord's prayer while she reached for a small bottle of holy water she had purchased. She daubed the 4 corners of the bed and commanded the spirit to leave her in peace. What happened next terrified her so much she called both my brother and I in the middle of the night.

As she commanded the spirit to depart, she suddenly heard a growl that chilled her blood. Then the bed began to shake violently while the growling continued. This lasted for about 30 seconds, then ended abruptly. At this point she turned on the lights, called us frantically, and dressed to leave immediately.

She made arrangements to have the house blessed, but it turns out that such things sometimes have to be scheduled several weeks in advance (much to my surprise). During the waiting period, a local ghost hunting group heard about the house and asked to do an investigation. Seeing as how she didn't have any other means of addressing the problem, she agreed.

The group did a 6 hour walk through investigation, followed by another 6 where the recorders and cameras were left to run in the empty house. While they caught nothing on video and still cameras, the audio was described to me as "One of the most chilling 12 hours of audio they'd ever experienced". They tallied no fewer than 5 different voices speaking during the entire length, the majority being female. There were a lot of unknown noises that they could not figure out a source, mainly in the vein of things being moved or bangs and crashes. The final voice was what they pegged as "male" but even the lead investigator said he had never heard such a deep and terrifying male voice. While some of the female voices could be understood, the male voice was unintelligible and consisted of raspy words and growls. The final nail in the proverbial coffin on the audio occurred during the part where no one was in the house. At some time around 4 in the morning, madness seemed to have broken out in the place. For a stretch of about 10 minutes, two separate audio recorders captured what I will describe as a temper tantrum. The stretch began with the voices talking to each other in an agitated state. Then you hear LOUD footsteps going up the stairs, followed by a series of booms and crashes, as if someone was taking the house apart looking for something. Then it goes quiet for a moment, then the female voices begin to murmur to each other. Suddenly there is a large explosion of sound as whatever went up the stairs comes back down, even louder than before. The female voices totally cease and a very distinct growling can be heard. Then there is a very loud crash, which seemed to have been the table where the recorder was placed, since you can head the recorder bouncing on the wood. Then the sequence ends with the basement door being opened violently, and what sounds like something scuttling down the stairs. Not human footsteps, but something going on more than two legs. Then everything stopped, and the house is silent until the team returns and turns off the equipment.

Needless to say, my sister went to her church and told them about this. The house blessing/cleansing was done within days. Long story short, they had to do it twice, as the priest said he still felt the presence fighting back as he was blessing the house during round one. The second time seemed effective, and the house was quiet for a couple of months. Then the process began again. This time my sister opted to move out instead of going through the whole thing again. She also suspected that a room mate might have been dabbling in something dark, and might have been actively calling it back.

 

Wow, I had chills reading that. The dark arts are something not to mess with, who knows what the room mate was up to.

 

You guys should invite an Orthodox priest to bless the house. These things will run away.

 

I'd be tempted to burn it down and call Allstate!

 

I was sleeping in bed one night and the right bottom corner of the bed came up a good 3 feet and slammed back down again.

I stood up to an empty room. Door was locked. No animals in the room. Even if one of them was inside the room, I don't know how they could have moved the bed so violently. It felt like a large person just lifted the corner up and slammed it down.

Never figured out how it happened. Nothing strange ever happened before or after. It was just that one occurrence.

 

Sounds like an Earthquake I experienced in NJ about 15 yrs ago. The epicenter was about a mile away. It made a wave in the Earth's surface that travelled at high speed. Like you might do with a bedspread when making the bed.

Sounded like a cannon shot just outside and the foundation of the house was cracked straight across. I went outside expecting to find a hunter 3 feet from the house but there was nobody on the 15 acre property but me.

got onto the computer and found that a sharp Earthquake had just occured in Frenchtown.

 

I have tried posting this story twice and something has not worked, maybe three is a charm.
I lived in a house that was used by the local seminary as a dorm, they sold it, and it became a rooming house for students,the private owner added a den off the kitchen.
If you sat in the den. You could hear a rocking chair in the kitchen, foot steps between the sink and where the old stove would be. smell wood smoke from the housekeeper cooking in the kitchen.

 

Used to live with shadow people and shadow cats. Got pretty desensitized. I really don't understand the spookiness. It turns into everyday life.

They moved out since many years. Just as well. It's not like they paid rent.

 

Since they moved out, have you ever wondered where they went?

 

Different house same neighborhood same age of house 20 years later.
We moved into an old house the rent was right and the house huge.
The basement had the bad feeling evil get in and out feel to it so that was the way we treated it.
The kids bedroom was on the second floor at the top of the stairs the closet had a hook and eye closure like on a screen door I didn't think much of it when we moved in.

The kids would start playing up there and when I would check on them they seemed happy if they were playing a game that had places,cards, board game, tea party, they would have n extra place. I didn't think anything of it till one night as I was to caking them in I pushed the closet door closed and all three sat up I their beds and told me to leave it open because the little girl didn't like being closed in there. And as soon as I heard them say it I knew it was true. I went and got a set of pliers and took the latch off before I finished tucking them in. Then as I was tucking them I they each told me she said "thank you " . She played with the kids the full 2 years we lived there.

Speaking of closets I'm a all the way open or all the way closed closet door person anyone else have a preference?

 

We hear footsteps often, smell coffee when not a single grain is in the house (we don't drink coffee), see shadows. We know who it is.

At work, computer mouse moves on it own, fake tree moves (no drafts or air vents nearby), dors open, files go missing (2 days is record), footsteps are heard, you also feel you are watched upstairs.

 

We hear footsteps often, smell coffee when not a single grain is in the house (we don't drink coffee), see shadows. We know who it is.

Well, who is it?

 

These stories are giving me the creeps! I think I'm going to have trouble going to sleep tonight

 

Heard this one...

At our local mental hospital, in one of the wards there's a caged off area. A new guy was doing rounds when he froze looking in the caged area. In the darkness, he could see a form in a wooden chair that looked just like the head and shoulders of a person sitting there. As he stood there trying to figure out the shadow. An older staff member walked up and snickered and said that shadow got everyone, but it was a neat illusion they'd seen for years. The 'head' was a combination shadow of a rolled rug on a filing cabinet and the pull handle of the shelf resting near by and the 'shoulder' was the cast shadow of the back of a chair in between.

He got use to seeing it and jokingly called out 'evening' when he did his rounds regularly after initially fearing he might get a response.

One day they heard an inexplicable noise, some sort of startled shriek. A staff member was standing there, staring into the cage. The gate was still locked. The up front chair was still there, the rug was still there as was the drawer with the pull handle...but the wooden chair was laying on it's side and the shadow image of a sitting person was gone!

So there they were, standing there staring wide eyed at into the cage and wondering where the heck the person like shadow went when they heard steps coming up behind them!

Imagine those seconds before they dared to turn around.

It was just a patient who'd peed himself and needed a change of linen.

I've been told that given enough time in service, it's hard to tell the staff from the patients.

 

I did security at a hospital for a number of years, night shift, 7 pm to 7am. The hospital was a small one, 2 stories, mainly to stabilize folks to send them to bigger hospitals, and the top floor, where DNR's or folks circling the drain went to pass away.

There wasn't a lot of staff, and in the cold winter months the place could be unbearably lonely. While working such long, late shifts, my eyes and mind would always play tricks on me. Seeing figures and shadows in the corner of my eyes, hearing voices. One night while taking a break in the upstairs sleeplab, which used to be the OR years ago. A friend and I heard loud, raspy breathing coming from one of the empty rooms, it got louder and louder until my friend, a devout Christian, said a prayer and it went away.

Patients and staff alike would always talk of seeing a black cloaked figure walk into rooms, shortly after that patient would pass away.

 

My wife and I bought a house a year after we got married that had only had one owner for the previous 60 years. Her husband worked in the coal mine that was active in the area when the house was new and had died young of black lung. The woman raised 2 daughters on her own in that house and continued living there after both girls had grown and moved out. She'd gone into a nursing home a couple years before we bought the place and died within that year. The kids were selling the house but it had been on the market for over a year when we got to it. There'd been several contracts on it, but they kept falling through on financing (this was a lower price range house.)
Anyway, I'm convinced some part of her hung on to the home she'd lived in for so long. There were some uncomfortable feelings of a presence, especially in the '2nd bedroom' which was a narrow room with no closet that opened off the main bedroom. Odd noises were pretty common, heard even by our cat who would trot off to go check them out. Mostly we blew it off as a noisy structure. We'd even had a couple overnight guests comment that the house made a lot of creepy sounds at night. The most disturbing thing was after a few months of living there, my wife asked me what in the heck I managed to forget when leaving for work every single morning. Her job was later in the day so she was still in bed when I'd leave in the mornings. I had no idea what she was talking about, and she told me that every morning a few minutes after I left she'd hear the back door open again, and assumed that I had come back for something I'd forgotten. That wasn't the case.

After 2 or 3 years of living there, we no longer felt an "extra" person in the house, and the noises had either quit or we got so used to them we no longer noticed.

 

If you want to see some really creepy stuff, watch a show on the travel channel called "Ghost Adventures".
They film stuff that is really hard to "Poo Poo".

 

Seriously? Mr. Zack "I'm going to dare the ghost to touch me, then scream like a little girl and run away when I think I feel something" Baggins?

That show is a prime model of how not to be taken seriously.